Hi Guys,

Progress update on the next patch:

We are now in BETA! Which means most of the changes have been finalised and are undergoing balance testing. We had an extremely successful beta test last weekend, and I can safely say that you will LOVE the next patch :-)

I won't paste the entire beta changelog because (a) it's far too long and (b) some stuff is still being tweaked. But the major changes:

GAMEPLAY

• Scout: Caltrops and radar have been removed. Instead they have a buildable jump pad on +attack2.
  
• Sniper: AR and Sniper rifle base damage has been reduced. (AR much moreso than SR)
  
• Soldier: RPG damage radius increased to more TFC-like. RPG reload time decreased slightly. Nail gren code has been rewritten: they now own SGs again, and use much less server resources to use.
  
• Demoman: Blue pipe fuse timer dramatically decreased (from 2.5 to 1.1 seconds). Pipetrap + blue pipe explosion radius increased (pipetrap moreso than blues).
  
• Medic: Medic's special ability now throws medpacks for teammates to use (still undergoing tweaking)
  
• HWGuy: New overheat system. You no longer overheat and there is no need for tapping (yay!) (still undergoing tw
  
• Pyro: IC base damage has come down. Pyro vs Pyro flame damage increased from 50% to 100% of base (affects IC and flamethrower), but Pyro's still can't be lit on fire.
  
• Spy: knife damage up to 50 from 32. Disguise time halved.
  
• Engineer: SG health has come down to 113% from 120% (ish). Bullet push reduced.
  
• ALL CLASSES (except medic): Melee weapons now do more damage. Crowbar + spanner up to 30 from 18. Knife up to 50 from 32. Frag gren dmg increased slightly (they were decreased 30% in the 1.11 patch - they are now about halfway). Bhop cap increased to 1.15 from 1.10 (when i mentioned 1.08% it was my error - we never tested that value on beta and the correct value is 1.15)

Also if you are on the ground when hand-held concing (and you don't jump), then you will perform a small conc jump rather than nothing happening. This will make it much easier for new players to understand what's going on, and less frustrating to switch between floor concs and HH concs.

VISUALS

• Grenades now have trails and halo's around them (thanks mirv)
  
• Blue and yellow pipes now have trails (thanks mirv / jiggles)
  
• Nails now have a slight glow behind them to increase visibility
  
• Player models have been tweaked to increase visibility (thanks 5316)
  
• Grenade models have been tweaked to increase visibility (thanks 5316)
  
• SG models have been tweaked to increase visibility (thanks 5316)
  
• SG now throws out sparks when it's below 50% health (thanks jiggles)
  
• New IC model! (well, a retextured RPG with some parts cut off, thanks omen + 5316 + decs)
  
• No more ugly background for build timers (thanks mirv)
  
• New HUD security icons for shutdown style maps (thanks 5316)
  
• New FOV change on speed effect. Work in progress. Can turn this off/on from the fortress options menu item. (thanks mirv)
  
• Shotgun muzzle flash more visible (thanks mirv)
  
• Many visuals now line up correctly in widescreen modes (damage indicators, Context menu (thanks mirv)
  
• Acceleration blur has changed, try it see what you think (thanks mirv)
  
• AC firing blur has changed, try it see what you think (thanks mirv)
  
• Fixed a conc/EMP effect issue (thanks mirv)
  
• HUD health / armor no longer flashes red when you are hit. It'll only flash red when you are < 25% health to prevent confusion. (instead it flashes white when hit)
  
• Grenade 2 timer up a bit so it's not so far down (thanks mirv)
  

BUGS / FIXES:
- Medkit fix. Should be much easier to heal people with medkit and spanner now, as friendlies are lag predicted now. (thanks jiggles)
- Suiciding no longer causes you to lose 100 fortress points

New functionality

• New splash screen to tell you about any updates to FF if you are playing an old version.
  
• New options screen with a load more stuff on it.

Wow, i guess i ended up pasting most of the beta changelog, haha. Basically the soldier is awesome to play now. Can pop people up in the air much easier than before, airshot more etc. He's really fun to play. Demoman is awesome now that blues are actually usable. He can DM like a beast now (but obv still has pretty low health, and no super shotgun) - so you dont just hide in a corner waiting to det a trap any more, you have more of an active role. HW should be much less annoying, personally I think the new charge system is awesome, but hey i would say that, i wrote it, lol. The jump pad is awesome but the physics are still undergoing tweaks. Basically means that the scout enables heavier offense classes and has a much more usable special (caltrops and radar were both pretty lame). The visuals are awesome.. everything is better! I'd better stop writing!

Anyway, the good news is, we're almost finished. Unfortunately this means stats probably won't make this patch but we decided to focus on fixing gameplay first, as if there's nobody playing the game, then there won't be any stats anyway :-) Stats hopefully next patch!

All that's left to do is tweak the jump pad values and the overheat system and a few other bits and bobs.

We're aiming to get everything locked down this weekend then a patch a week later, so hopefully first week in february-ish!